It’s true, we [the Netherlands and Sweden] are small northern countries. We don’t have big German conglomerates to help us out. I just felt like we have to stand together because we’re the same people, we have the same DNA.

Spyker CEO Victor Muller explains his firm’s racially-charged interest in Saab to the LA Times‘ Dan Neil, while somehow managing to avoid any reference to Chris Bangle. Does this mean Muller is OK leaving Saab production in Sweden as a term for the European Investment Bank Loan?

Absolutely. As a matter of principle. The only truly authentic thing about a brand is provenance. The [Porsche] Boxster is built in Finland, OK, no problem. But could they be built in Mumbai? Sure, they’d be 20% cheaper but nobody would buy it.

Sigh. Given Muller’s soft spot for ethnicity-based branding and the sale of 9-5 tooling to China’s BAIC, we’re going to guess that the Saab-Spyker deal isn’t going to work out so well. [Hat Tip: Thor Johnsen]

32 Comments on “Quote Of The Day: The Worst Possible Reason For Buying A Car Company Edition...”

Not the most enlightened viewpoint but nevertheless country-of-origin certainly plays an important part in people’s initial perception of a vehicle. Kind of like how I’ve never paid much attention to Spyker because after all, what can the Dutch know about building supercars anyway? Real supercars are only made by Italians (and Northern ones at that).

I just felt like we have to stand together because we’re the same people, we have the same DNA.

Obviously the Dutch politicians don’t think so considering the way Geert Wilders is being treated when he says anything about immigration. On the other hand, what’s wrong, TTAC, about cars retaining some ethnic/racial characteristics that reflect their origins? Who wants a multicultural “we are the world” car with no specific characteristics? A Corvette is not a Ferrari, and the day they (and other brands) morph into each other is the day I’ll start riding a bus. Somehow a Chinese SAAB is a big question mark to me.

What an arrogant dumba**. Somehow, I don’t think it will be legal (or nearly as profitable) when he tries to limit sales of SAAB’s to people sharing his DNA. BTW, ask him which part of his DNA he is refering to … if it is mitachondrial, then in all likelihood, this harkens back to a woman in Africa. Check that, he’s an arrogant, ignorant, double dumba**.

BTW, Ingvar Kampraad (another eugenics-friendly type) never seemed to suffer by outsourcing his production to Low Cost Countries and hyping it for its racial purity (just look in the catalogue at all the photos of the Swedish-DNA populating the design department and ask, “where are all the photos of all the 3rd-World-DNA from the production department\'”).

So a guy who’s foolish with money makes a great opportunity for blog-fodder moral preening because he’s arrogant, ignorant, a racist…whatever words we can throw at him for having ethnic pride and being the color and fair featured man he is.
The world over you’d find the same attitude if it were regarding the South Koreans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Germans, the Indians, the French… and let’s not forget Americans who wanted American car companies to survive and thrive as three strong American offerings.
Unbecoming of TTAC, Mr. Niedermeyer, to try to get some cheap interest off let’s call the Norwegian a racist for being proud to be from Scandinavia. People are the same in that sentiment the whole world over.
Would a boy from Flint be a racist for saying he wanted a strong Buick because it was built by the same people, with the same DNA, in the same land?

Being African American I believe He has a right to express his beliefs. However, 3rd world labor is what is. My relatives in Ethiopia dont have a car factory there, and if they did, I wouldnt buy one! We all have pride in our forefathers, stating such is not a crime. Not that any of this matters. Its not news. The company is a dead man walking.

The worst thing you can call a person is racist. It’s a real career ender, and I’m very disappointed TTAC is playing the race card for something so innocuous. But, like many politically correct phrases, it’s mostly meaningless when you try and parse it. The fact that people have pride in their country, ethnicity or race, and celebrate their heritage is, it appears, only bad for white guys. It’s OK for everyone else, it seems. Liberalism has destroyed us. Welcome, our multicultural overlords.

I think Muller was simply conflating culture and DNA, and yes, that’s a little ignorant, but he probably forgot to take biology when he was in college. In any case, I doubt that he’s a racist. He’s just proud to be from Sweden, just as I am proud to be from the United States. Cars often do take character from their home countries, and they used to do this even more. I remember very fondly the Saabs and Volvos of my youth. The French, the Germans, the Italians, the Japanese, and our own cars of the middle of the last century all had national character, and I would love to see Saab once again evince some Scandinavian character. I would love to see an Israeli car, but I’m glad my own great state, Massachusetts, does not have a state car. I’m afraid it would be akin to that Pelosimobile.

We don’t have big German conglomerates to help us out.
No, just a Russian tycoon. I’d rather be in bed with a German conglomerate than a Russian tycoon. Has Herr Muller qualified Herr Antonov with a cheek swab DNA test?

Mr Muller is not Swedish, he’s not even Scandinavian – he’s from Holland, the Netherlands, Dutch. And even though there are some common DNA, like 6.000 years back, and there were some loose war-alliances between Holland and Sweden in the 17th century, the dutch are more related to the Germans, Swiss, Belgians and Austrians than the Nordic people. That’s why this sounds funny.
One wonders what his, and his Russian oligarks’, real agenda is.
And BTW; the day TTAC becomes politically correct, that day – I for one – will stop visiting the site.

I had no quarrel with the objective, only the rationale. As David Holzman rightly pointed out, brand purity and ethnic purity are two distinctly separate things. There are many good justifications for wanting to try and rescue SAAB, genetic commonality is the least of them.

Due to my mongrel DNA I shouldn’t be commenting on this at all, but at the risk of offending some, I’d like to offer this (from my very humble position, as per naure would have it): Are the Dutch Scandinavian?

Nationalism? Certainly. Jingoism? Perhaps. Racism? Nah. The usage of the term DNA is overreaching a bit, but the statement doesn’t offend me or strike me as more racist then the average American wanting American cars built in America or the Japanese fiercely defending their domestic rice market.
It is a decision based on emotion rather then economics, but I think country of origin is a consideration in a great many number of goods consumers the world over buy. What we feel in our minds and hearts is expressed with our dollars/rupees/RMB/Euros/rubles, why not Victor Muller?

I don’t see it as any more racist than me rooting for Ford to survive or maybe a more exact example would be a Canadian rooting for Ford. I do think his geography is a bit muddled though.
having national pride in your countries products is a good thing. Our embrace of globalism has seriously hurt our already wounded manufacturing base.

A little racist imo. I don’t mind people having a soft spot for a country, even their own country, but I wanna see why not another country. The Boxster argument is seemingly pretty narrow minded ie. blind and egotistical. . Its like saying I want faith in God to stay in Rome cause that is where it started (is it?). I’m not religious (no offense), so the hell with buying American for Americas sake alone.

Like Spyker, everyperson is ego centric ie. thinks they are better or worse than another, to some degree (me included). Ego centric means they focus on external conditions to justify their hierarchy. Hence the real reason why Racism exists and buying American/sweedish, and most of the worlds problems.